Page 77 of Wilder

Could it wait, though?

Maybe she’d tell her during their call the next day. If she called right then, they might get into a fight, and she couldn’t deal with that when she was supposed to be working.

“Want some tea?”

She looked up to see Luke from the café coming toward her with a steaming cup. “Thank you.”

“Looks like you were really put through the works.”

Lexi nodded. “It’s going to get worse.”

The guy shook his head. “Don’t think I could do it.”

Lexi took a sip of her tea and let out a sigh of appreciation. “Do you know if there’s any way to get some food brought down here? I’m starving, but I don’t have the time to go up to the restaurants.”

“Let me take care of that,” Luke said. “What do you want?”

She thought about it for a moment, then said, “The steak salad, please.”

“Anything else?”

“Nope. That’ll be good. Thank you.”

Lexi shifted over to one of the tables near her office, then propped her skates up on the chair across from her. Was she going to be able to endure the intense training that was to come? When push came to shove, it didn’t matter. She’d committed to it, so she had no choice.

She’d do it, though. One day at a time, she’d do it.

She had to. She had to prove that she could still rise to the top and skate with the best of them. That even though they’d abandoned and ostracized her, she still had much to offer the skating world. Starting with one or two more competitions.

And hopefully, she’d walk away from the Olympics with a podium finish.

Maybe even a gold medal. Which, if she got one, she’d bring back to Serenity and pack away with her other medals.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Wilder held open the door of the rink for Amelia and Layla, then followed them inside. Even though the rink was never the warmest place because of the ice, that day it was definitely warmer inside than outside.

The girls ran ahead of him to where Lexi stood in her skates on the ice. It was seven-thirty, which was an hour and a half earlier than the girls usually came for their lesson, but since he had to be on the slopes at nine, this was the only time they could all practice together.

“Good morning, girls,” Lexi said. “How are you today?”

As they chatted for a bit, Wilder watched Lexi, still trying to process what he’d seen her and Mik do the day before. He’d seen pairs skating before, had even seen videos of her and Mik skating together, but it was a different experience when it was live and it was someone he knew and cared about being thrown into the air.

He’d never questioned her skill and talent, but he’d only had half the story. When Mik had flung her into the air, her blades had cleared the top of the boards, and still, she’d managed to land on her feet.

“Let’s get your skates on,” Lexi said. “Then we can do a little warmup before I show you your parts for the Christmas program.”

Wilder went with them to the bench and helped them lace up their skates. Then, while they were on the ice with Lexi, he put on his own. He joined them, skating around the perimeter of the rink as Lexi worked with the girls.

He wanted to know in detail how the rest of the practice had gone with Mik, but when he’d texted her the night before to ask, she’d just said it had gone fine.

Given what he’d seen the previous day, she needed to compete. Her talent and skill were very evident. And even after not competing for a year and a half, shestillskated better than Mik. He’d known she loved to skate. But seeing her with Mik, skating one of their programs, it was clear she belonged on the ice.

Would dipping her toe into the competition waters again draw her away from Serenity?

After Wilder circled the rink a second time, he stopped against the boards near where Lexi was working with the girls. It seemed that perhaps they were going to be the only elves on the ice for the program, which made sense since Lexi needed it to be less complicated considering everything else going on.

“Why don’t you two stand here while your uncle and I show you our part of the program, then we’ll try it all together.”

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